Sec

Founded in 2000, SEC is a technology-focused company that develops and manufactures core components such as X-ray tubes and accelerator tubes based on industrial e-beam technology, and it listed on KOSDAQ via the technology special listing track on April 28, 2025.

The company achieved Korea's first domestic development and commercialization of the X-ray tube, a core component of industrial X-ray systems, in 2006, and remains the only domestic X-ray system company capable of in-house production and sale of this component.

Built on this core technology, the company sells products across three main lines: X-ray systems for the semiconductor and battery industries, LINAC (linear accelerator) systems for the defense industry, and tabletop SEM units for research and analysis.

According to an April 21, 2026 report by Daishin Securities, the prior year's revenue mix was roughly 36% semiconductor, 24% battery, 23% defense and 17% other, showing a shift from a semiconductor-centric base toward a broader industrial portfolio.

Major customers include Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Amkor of the United States among global semiconductor back-end players, along with battery manufacturers, with the defense customer base also expanding recently.

Its semiconductor X-ray systems inspect TSV and micro-bump bonding defects in HBM chips and PCB/BGA defects in SMT processes.

Competitors in the battery and defense inspection space include Innometry, SFA and Techvalley, while in glass-substrate (TGV) inspection SEC has supplied Korea's first automated inspection equipment to JNTC in an attempt to secure early leadership in a nascent market.

In defense, LINAC-based non-destructive inspection systems have been supplied to military units and Hanwha Aerospace, with the company citing a 136% average annual growth rate for this business between 2021 and 2024.

More recently, the company has been preparing to expand its e-beam applications into glass-substrate processing (TGV drilling) and medical radiation therapy equipment.

2025 consolidated revenue rose to KRW 59.2 billion from KRW 53.9 billion the prior year, but operating profit swung to a loss of KRW 3.06 billion from a profit of KRW 1.34 billion, and owners' net income turned to a loss of KRW 3.79 billion from a profit of KRW 2.07 billion.

The operating margin fell 7.7 percentage points, from 2.5% in 2024 to negative 5.2% in 2025.

On a quarterly basis, after posting revenue of KRW 13.2 billion and an operating loss of KRW 1.92 billion in Q2 2025, the company saw revenue rise to KRW 15.7 billion in Q3 2025 with a marginal operating profit of KRW 95 million and owners' net income improving to KRW 375 million.

However, the trend reversed heading into 2026: Q1 revenue fell sharply to KRW 9.7 billion versus Q3 2025 while the operating loss widened to KRW 3.75 billion, and Q2 revenue declined further to KRW 7.6 billion even as the operating loss expanded to KRW 3.96 billion.

In other words, following the Q3 2025 peak, revenue has declined for two consecutive quarters while losses have widened rather than narrowed, a pattern that runs counter to typical economies-of-scale logic and suggests fixed costs may have remained steady or increased even as revenue shrank.

According to media reports, the company changed its revenue recognition method for certain product lines from a percentage-of-completion basis to a complete-delivery basis around the time of its listing, a change cited as a factor that concentrates or empties revenue in specific quarters depending on when customer acceptance certificates are received, thereby amplifying quarterly earnings volatility.

At listing, the company had targeted 2025 revenue of KRW 72.5 billion and operating profit of KRW 5.5 billion, later revising these down to KRW 65.3 billion and KRW 400 million; the actual confirmed results of KRW 59.2 billion revenue and a KRW 3.06 billion operating loss fell short even of the revised targets.

On the balance sheet side, owners' equity rose to KRW 35.4 billion at the end of 2025 from KRW 20.6 billion a year earlier, reflecting capital inflow from the IPO, while the debt ratio declined to 137.5% from 279.9%.

The most notable upstream trend is rising HBM demand driven by AI semiconductor proliferation, as global memory makers including Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron actively invest in HBM and advanced packaging technology, rapidly increasing demand for 2D/3D CT X-ray systems that inspect internal defects in the manufacturing process.

However, the pace at which this structural demand translates into actual revenue varies significantly by customer order timing and equipment adoption schedules, a characteristic evident in SEC's quarterly revenue swings during 2025-2026.

The glass-substrate (TGV) inspection segment remains an early-stage market with almost no established reference cases; SEC created a domestic first by supplying automated inspection equipment to JNTC, but competitors such as SFA and Innometry are also attempting to enter this market in partnership with Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Corning, meaning a standardized market leader has not yet emerged.

In battery inspection, safety concerns such as electric-vehicle fires have raised demand for reliable 3D CT inspection, but competition remains intense as Innometry holds a leading position supplying all three major domestic battery makers' mass-production lines.

The defense/LINAC segment is a relatively niche market with fewer competitors, offering structurally repeatable orders for defense quality inspection and missile inspection, though individual contract sizes are not large, limiting the absolute revenue contribution.

Overall, SEC holds a differentiated technical position through its vertically integrated e-beam core technology, but as a small-cap technology stock with limited market capitalization and revenue scale, it lags larger competitors in capital strength and sales organization scale.

The company has repeatedly stated its intention to expand revenue and turn profitable in the second half, attributing the earlier weakness to one-off listing-related costs and to the timing gap created by its shift in revenue recognition method, which converts backlog into recognized revenue only upon customer acceptance.

Daishin Securities, in an April 21, 2026 report, forecast 2026 revenue of KRW 70.7 billion (up 19.4% year over year) and operating profit of KRW 2.7 billion (turning profitable), citing expansion of HBM and SMT inspection equipment in semiconductors, capacity expansion at global battery customers, and repeat LINAC orders in defense as growth drivers.

However, the confirmed Q1-Q2 2026 results showed simultaneous revenue decline and widening operating losses, running counter to this optimistic outlook, making it a key point to watch whether second-half results can narrow this gap.

On the product side, the company completed development of the 'Semi-Scan-SW' inline inspection system for HBM production lines in April 2026 and unveiled it for the first time at the SSPA 2026 exhibition; this equipment is also described as capable of inspecting the TGV process for glass substrates and bonding processes in wafer-level packaging.

In the glass-substrate segment, the company received an e-beam drilling technology transfer from the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology and began developing a TGV processing system, targeting commercialization as early as 2028.

In defense, the company signed a non-destructive inspection equipment supply contract with Hanwha Aerospace for a Daejeon-area project in June 2026 (contract period June 9, 2026 to December 31, 2027, value KRW 4.23 billion), with contract execution ongoing.

New business areas such as e-beam-based medical radiation therapy devices and sterilization equipment are also being pursued through government-funded research programs, though commercialization remains at an earlier stage.